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Korean Directors Take on STAR WARS

JK Youn (aka Youn Je-gyun)

Key Films: Haeundae, 2009; Ode to My Father, 2014

Episode VIII: Rey (recast and played by Ha Ji-won) engages in heart-warming and comical training sessions with Luke (Song Kang-ho), in an early Jacky Chan film mode. Kylo Ren (Yoo Ah-in) is subject to bathroom humor about getting motion sickness while wearing that mask, etc. There are many battles and scenes with thousands of CGI-rendered extras, but “suffering” is emphasized rather than the “glory” of warfare, as the director reassures us. Finn is killed off in the first five minutes. Rey wails and cries and tears her hair out in big, big, SAD scenes.

Result: The episode sells 15 million tickets in Korea, does pretty well in Vietnam, Portugal and Italy, bombs everywhere else.